Art-ology

Despite what by any standards was a setback at Copenhagen, there seems little doubt that a considerable amount of attention is going to be focused on the need for us all to become more sustainable during the new decade. There had been much hope for lasting accord in Denmark, as nations met to discuss a successor to the original Kyoto Protocol. Once again though, politics and domestic interests came to the fore, even though individual countries did promise to take concerted action.

Each week seems to bring forward additional evidence pointing to the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions to environmental damage. Over 300 years we have given little regard to the consequences of energy production and use or our reliance on fossil fuels. There is no doubt that a lot of harm will ensue unless we change our ways soon.

The lead is being taken in Europe, where the UK is implementing a trading scheme to force the largest polluters to buy licenses from the government allowing them to emit additional carbon. Should these companies improve efficiency and reduce their use, they will receive rebates and bonuses. Should they not, they will incur penalties. This scheme is just an indication of what is likely to come as governments start to force consumers to address their carbon footprints.

A large part of the pollution in question can be attributed to transportation methods and our reliance on petroleum and petro diesel to transport our vehicles. As such, biodiesel fuel is an excellent option and in many cases is much more palatable and can even reduce carbon dioxide related emissions as compared to those conventional gases.

The EPA has recently found that greenhouse gases are a hazard to health under the powers given to them by the Clean Air Act. We can now expect legislation and existing powers to be wielded, forcing emissions to be curtailed from these vehicles.

If biodiesel can be shown to be a workable alternative and a solution that has benefits above and beyond carbon emissions, then we could see a concerted increase in the number of facilities making biodiesel, more distribution stations and more people converting to the use of biodiesel for their diesel engine vehicles. This alternative may be used within regular petro diesel engines without any modifications or alterations and can be used within a variety of different strengths or solutions.

Biodiesel has been around for a considerable period of time but has not retained much interest as conventional petroleum or petro diesel was relatively cheap and we were not sufficiently aware of the damage caused by carbon emissions. That was the past, but this is now and as society continues to demand that we all become more sustainable, bio fuel advocates should ensure that this fuel becomes part of our talking points and alternatives. People now need to move from the process of making homemade biodiesel to demanding that commercially made options are widely available all around them.

We now know that if we all make a concerted effort individually toward real change, whether in small things or on a large scale, anything is possible when it comes to global environmental sustainability, for us, and for our future generations.